Bands spread Air Force message through music

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Matt Proietti
  • Air Force Public Affairs Agency
LOS ANGELES (AFNS) --  Air Force musicians took to heart the entertainment industry phrase "The show must go on" by performing in the greater Los Angeles area as wildfires burned in Southern California Nov. 15.

"It's our job to get out there," said Master Sgt. Scott McPherson of the Air National Guard Band of the Southwest from Channel Islands Air National Guard Station, Calif. 

"The group is like that," he said. "They put the audience before themselves quite a bit."

Ash fell from the sky and smoke wafted through the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Park, Calif., during two sets by Shockwave, a 10-member popular music group made of members of the 562nd Air Force Band, the organizational name of the Channel Islands' band. A plume of smoke blocked the sunlight, making it appear like dusk in mid-afternoon.

"The smoke restricts the breathing for the vocalists and the horn players," said Sergeant McPherson, the unit's first sergeant and drummer for Shockwave and other groups that spin off from the larger band to play Dixieland jazz, rhythm and blues and other popular styles. "It's not very comfortable and they woke up the next morning with headaches and some respiratory problems."

Shockwave performed rock, county and rhythm and blues music from the 1950s to the present on a stage decorated with red, white and blue bunting in front of a mock courthouse in the western-themed amusement park.

They played an earlier concert that morning at the Air Force Week Expo in Hollywood, Calif., and returned there the day after the amusement park show. Trumpet player Tech Sgt. Jerry Lockwood sang the Willie Nelson hit "On the Road Again" with a military twist: he changed the lyrics to "I'm Deployed Again" and described what life is like for modern Airmen.

Band members toured overseas last summer, performing in Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar and Turkmenistan.

They visited Vistamar School in El Segundo, Calif., Nov. 17, to perform and discuss musical instruments with students in ninth through 12th grades.

The Air Force Band of the Golden West from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., played a free concert tribute Nov. 16 to the work of John Williams, a former Airman and renowned composer and conductor who has drawn acclaim for his film scores. Mr. Williams served in the Air Force in the early 1950s, working as a musician and arranger in the Air Force Band.

The show was at the Warner Grand Theater in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, an art-deco style structure that opened in 1931. Col. Anita Eigner Latin, commander of the 61st Air Base Wing at Los Angeles Air Force Base, introduced the band, which has 10 members currently deployed to the Middle East "forging bonds through the universal language of music," she said.

The band performed Nov. 17 at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. 

The band is performing during Air Force Week Los Angeles, which is an event designed to educate the local population about the Air Force's capabilities and missions through various activities and exhibitions all over the Los Angeles area. It provides an up close and personal look at the men and women of the Air Force serving worldwide in the defense of freedom. Air Force Week Los Angeles runs through until Nov. 21. 

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